The Chargers coach had good reason for arriving several minutes late to his own press conference, meeting with a group of veteran leaders after practice ended: safety Eric Weddle, center Nick Hardwick, tight end Antonio Gates, inside linebacker Donald Butler, outside linebacker Jarret Johnson and quarterback Philip Rivers.

Each of those players, McCoy felt, belonged in that private, on-field conversation.

That includes Hardwick.

“He is one of those guys you always want to build the team around,” he said this week.

A Thursday night game is a rough request on a player’s body, demanding a short turnaround from the previous Sunday. The schedule for this week in Denver would seem to hinder Hardwick more than most if, in all honesty, he wasn’t so busy enjoying himself.

This is a player in his 10th NFL season.

This is a player with a neck injury such a nuisance that, for the past two weeks, the Chargers coaches have held him out of practice on Wednesdays and Thursdays. On the sideline Sunday, in between possessions, a bag of ice wrapped around his neck like a neck roll. Late in the fourth quarter, he was pulled because there wasn’t sense, the coaches figured, to have him continue on with a win over the Giants in hand.

Hardwick practiced Tuesday. He will start Thursday.

Neither being a surprise is why this is a player who belonged in that veteran meeting with McCoy.

“If you can go, you go,” said Hardwick, the only Chargers lineman to start every game the past four seasons. “I want to play with my friends.

“To me, it’s about being out there and having good memories to share with the guys, to be able to fly back from a road trip. We won in Kansas City, and being able to be a part of those stories — even though my neck was killing me — it doesn’t matter. You want to be a part of it. You want to be with your buddies and share the stories and share part of the glory you get. Or share the defeat, if that’s what it’s going to be. You want to share all of that.”

Hardwick may have a greater appreciation for camaraderie because of his individual-sport background.

He played only one season of high school football as a freshman. He was a wrestler, a three-year letter winner, a runner-up in Indiana’s state championship on a close decision he characterizes as “controversial.”

In college, he joined the Purdue football team as a walk-on.

There is still a love for wrestling — if he can strike a conversation with a teammate who wrestled, he will — but he is addicted to football for all its highs and lows.

"If you ever showed anyone or talked to someone about what an NFL player is,” McCoy said, “Nick Hardwick is a prime example of that. What the game means to him, the way he prepares, the way he plays, the leadership, the way he helps the younger players — he is a great person and a good human being. He is just a great guy to have on your football team.”